January 2017 // Archive

STOP Running Yourself Into The Ground

Rhys Perrett here from Next Level Performance and today I want to talk about running.

It’s January and I’m seeing lot’s of people getting out in the cold, going running to hopefully lose weight.

I wanted to share with you my top 5 tips to better running. What do I mean by that? Well, I want to help you run so you can be as fit as possible as well as losing as much weight as possible.

So before I share the 5 tips, there’s hundreds of personal trainers out there all claiming different thing. That they’re different to everybody else. But, in reality, it’s really quite simple…

Yes, there’s hundreds of different kinds of running shoes you could buy, but what I’m going to focus on is your technique so you can get the most out of your exercise and be most efficient in doing so.

Let’s dive in…

One: Warm Up

Everything starts with a warm up. The most important part of a workout is the warm up. It gets you ready for your workout. It’s one of the reason why you’ll never do a running warm up in the gym because we’re not going to be running in the gym. Instead, we’re going to focus on movements related to running. Running drills are an excellent way to warm up.

Two: Skipping

Closely related to tip number one and another great way to warm up before running. You can buy a speed rope off Amazon for less than £5.00. Try doing rounds of 30 second intervals and build up going for as long as you can. It’s one of my favourite ways to get my muscles ready to exercise!

Three: Embrace Your Core

When doing your warm up and running, make sure you brace your stomach and upper body. Think like you’ve got a little child or dog…think about when they’re running and try to jump on your stomach and you tense your stomach. That’s the movement you want to practice. When running, it’s not possible to hold this brace position so think about holding your core 10-20% tight. It’s why you see many people running like sloths…because they don’t brace their core. Stand up tall.

Four: Work Your Glutes!

Your glutes are the largest muscles on your body. They’re responsible for expanding the hips and pushing forward. I’ve experienced many people having running injuries because their glutes haven’t been firing properly. A great way to get your glutes firing is by doing exercises such as the squat and hip bridge. They’re both fantastic movements which we teach at Next Level Performance too.

Five: Don’t Go Too Hard

Yes, you want to push yourself butthe whole goal of running is to enjoy the experience.

Don’t run yourself into the ground. If it’s not fun, you’re not going to stick to it. Making exercise fun, again, is one of our key fundamentals at Next Level Performance for that very reason. We don’t want you to leave because you didn’t enjoy the experience!

We want to make exercise fun and enjoyable. At our Next Level Performance, everybody laughs at least once per session.

Hope you’ve enjoyed today’s ready, go out there and implement these 5 simple steps to enjoy and get better results from your running.

My Top 10 Tips to Quickly Improve The Quality Of Your Sleep

I get questions all the time from clients and friends asking ‘how do I improve my sleep?’ In fact I’ve had a client tell me today she was celebrating the fact she had 7 hours sleep because it’s such a rare occasion.

People are telling me they’re for ever tired and fatigued. But the truth is, there’s lots of factors that affect the quality of your sleep. In this article, I’m going to share with you just some of the factors that have the most dramatic affect on the quality of your sleep. Even if you work on 1 or 2 of the points I’m going to share, you’ll see an amazing improvement in your own sleep (as early as tonight)…

Lets jump right in.

Caffeine

Caffeine is stimulant and well known for its energetic properties. It’s in products like Red bull, Monster energy drinks and coffee. Believe it or not, caffeine has been on the banned substance list for the anti doping agency. Caffeine has the potential to increase performance both mentally and physically.

You really want to try and limit or eliminate caffeine about six hours before you want to go to sleep. Flip your thinking and stay away from the caffeine because it will affect the quality of your sleep.

Alcohol

Believe it or not, Alcohol is another another substance that’s going to dramatically affect your sleep.

Try to reduce the amount you’re drinking especially on the run up to when you want to head off to bed.

We’ve all been in that situation where we hit the town on a night out (maybe it’s Christmas or New Year) and after drinking for a while, you start to feel sleepy. And once you’re in this state, you know your next night’s sleep is going to be rather shallow. It’s going to be restless and you won’t have the REM sleep to drift off into a deep sleep where the magic happens. REM deep sleep is where our body recovers and repairs.

When it comes to alcohol, try and reduce your intake or eliminate it from your diet because it’s going to affect your sleeping patterns.

The most common time for having a glass of wine or a pint of beer is when you’re winding down trying to relax. Let’s look at some other methods you could use to chill out and relax instead of reaching for another bottle of red…

Read a Book/ Listen to An Audio Book

Books are a great way to wind down, switch off from technology and chill. I’ve got a massive library of books in my office right now, just ask if you’d like some reading material and I’ll help you out.

Sleep Patterns

A great way to de stress and get away from the stimulating computer screen.

Let’s talk about sleeping patterns…

When I talk about sleeping patterns, I mean establishing a certain time that you’re going to go to sleep and waking up at a certain time. After doing this for a number of days, you’ll discover how to set your body clock. You’ll no longer need an alarm clock to wake up to because your body is so used to waking up at similar times every day.

It’s funny how the mind and body work. I mean how many times have you set your alarm to wake up at 6AM for work and you wake up 5 minutes the alarm is due to go off? That’s your body clock and subconscious mind working.

De-stress and wind down

As well as having a routine, you need to factor in your wind down and chill out times. Maybe this is towards the end of the day. We touched earlier on ways to de stress including puzzles and reading a book. Make sure you’ve got a time blocked off where you can turn off all your electronics like the tv, your phone and computer and simply relax. A warm bath with Espom Salts is a great way to wind down and relax, getting you ready for a great nights sleep.

The blue stimulating light from your phone can have a detrimental affect on the quality of your sleep

If you choose to read a book, make sure it’s not on your phone. Grab a physical book or listen to an audio book. Turn off technology and have a conversation with your loved ones. Relax in the atmosphere around you.

Listen to Your Body

You’ve got to remember that if you’re fatigued or tired at all, don’t try and fight it. If you’re tired at 8 o’clock but you’d normally go to bed at 10 o’clock, head to bed right now.

And when you do finally climb into bed, make sure you don’t have your phone anywhere near you. Have it out of the room and use a mechanical alarm clock if you need one. If it’s not possible to remove your phone from your bedroom, have it at the other end of the bed on a table so it can’t distract you.

When you head into the evening, instead of using bright lights, try using calming candles to sooth your eyes and body.

Fluid Intake

This is going to be a huge factor in the quality of your sleep. Try not to drink roughly around one hour before you go to bed as that could lead to constant toilet breaks during the night. It’s all great having fluids around exercise and during the day but try and limit your intake before you sleep.

Which brings me onto my next point…

Exercise.

Exercise can affect your sleep.

If you’re training for instance at 8PM or 9PM, this can affect your sleep quality because you’re going to have a heightened energy response.

Think back to when you’ve exercised in the morning (which many people recommend you do)…

It sets you up for the day and fills you full of energy and vitality!

If you’re training late into the night, Id suggest you invest in some sleep supplements such as zinc or magnesium to help you relax into a deep sleep. A perfect combination is a warm bath with Espom salts addedto help send you off and unwind into a deep sleep.

What Next?

So I’ve given you lots of points to work through to improve the quality of your sleep. For the best results, I suggest you use a diary, set alarms on your phone when you need to turn it off and start winding down. Otherwise, you’ll forget and never follow any of the above points.

There’s nothing stopping you from starting to work on any of the above points. Don’t put it off and procrastinate. You could be having the best nights sleep of your life tonight!

If it all sounds a little too much for you right now, then focus on simplicity and working on just two of the points. Maybe you’ll choose to read a physical book before bed every night instead of your phone. Doing only this will have a dramatic affect on your sleep.

Hope you’ve enjoyed this article. For more information how you can move to the next level in life, head on over to my website www.rhysperrett.com for more details.

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I work with athletes, rehabilitation programs and successful weight loss strategies to improve the health and fitness of my clients
with the view to becoming the best personal trainer in the Runcorn and Widnes area.